I Can Drive!

In Thailand, they drive on the left hand side of the road and vehicles have the steering wheel on the right hand side of the car.  When Jeff and I were trying to figure out what to do about a car here, we decided it would be safer to go with the flow and get a car with the steering wheel on the right.  Also, it's very hard to get American cars serviced here, and our trusty Ford was going on eight years old, so we knew it would need some kind of tune up in the next three years.

In the end we bought a used, Japanese Honda CRV from a departing embassy family, and now my job is to figure out how to drive it and how to get to all the places I need to get to around here.  There are a few challenges to this, starting with getting in the correct side of the car, which I did not do this morning.

Other things to practice, the rearview mirror is on my left not my right, and the turn signals are on the right of the steering wheel, not the left.  I'm getting better about signalling rather than wiping, but every so often I forget and the wipers go swishing across the windshield.  

As if that wasn't enough fun stuff, Thais park backwards.  In some parking garages it's required, but in most it's just standard practice.  That's what the little mirror on the hood is for.  I've been practicing this as much as I can, but at the grocery store, I've decided it's ridiculous, and next time I'm not doing it.  This is an older CRV where the back opens sideways like a door, so if I park backwards like I'm supposed to, I can barely open my trunk to put my groceries in.  

Each day I've learned how to get to a different store.  On Sunday, I learned how to get to Makro (Thai version of Costco).  It's actually quite close to my house, but the direct route takes you on a major, congested road and requires two u-turns.  Since it was my first trip I decided to take the longer, back road route.  I had a veteran neighbor in the front as a guide and a carless neighbor in the back to do shopping.  We made it there and back with no issues.  The only scare was when I was attempting to park backwards a lunatic motorcycle tried to speed behind me, and I almost killed him, but I'm putting that on him not me.

On Monday, I went to Big C with a different carless neighbor, Young, Elena, and written directions.  I parked backwards more successfully this time, and, since Young was really doing the shopping while I was pushing Elena around, I took some pictures.

I have no desire to eat these, but the rice bears make me happy.

These may ultimately taste good, but at this point it's just a slightly disturbing but well organized display.

Today, my adventure was going to the mall.  The first step was learning where to park my car at the mall, since I have only ever used the special golf cart parking.  It only took three back and forths to park backwards today, so I was very proud.  Next, my friend and I went to the bank to get cash.  Thailand is primarily a cash economy, and there are very few places that take credit cards, so I am having a hard time keeping enough cash on hand for all of our expenses.

This week we got our cable/internet/phone bill.  One way to pay the bill is to take it to the nearest 7-11 and pay in cash, but I did not want to part with all my hard earned cash.  The company that provides these services is called True and they have a store at the mall, so I went there to try and use my credit card.

At True they have machines for self-service or you can take a number and get helped by people behind desks.  There are also a couple people to help you with the machines.  If I had a Thai credit card, the machines would have been great, because you just scan the bar code on your bill and then swipe your card, but the machine didn't like my American credit card, so I had to get a number and wait for a person.  It took a little longer, but he had a regular credit card machine, that accepted my foreign card, so I was happy.

Vivian had another great day at school and was so excited that they got to use iPads for math.  For dinner tonight, I asked Young to make winged bean salad which is something I had when I was out to lunch with friends last week.

And here's a close up of a "winged" bean.  Jeff said they look more like legs.  Whatever comparison you want to make, the salad is yummy.